GIFT  OF 

!• 

'What  went  ye  out  for  to  see?" 


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V.    ^  lJi,WAKl,            Boston.  Mass..  U.  S.  A.  6 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR 
.     TO  SEE?" 

PRINCIPLE    NOT   PERSON 
JESUS   OF    NAZARETH 
JESUS   THE   CHRIST 
JESUS    AND   THE    CHRIST 


Articles  Republished  from 
The  Christian  Science  Periodicals      ' 


THE  CITRISTIAN   SCIENCE  PUBLISHING  SOCIETY 

FALMOUTH  AND   ST.   PAUL  STREETS 

BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 

U.  S.  A. 


Copyright,  1915  by 
THE   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   PUBLISHING   SOCIETY. 


"What  went  ye  out  for  to  see?! 


PRINCIPLE   NOT   PERSON 

NINETEEN  centuries  have  elapsed  since  the  star 
s'tood  over  Bethlehem  and  proclaimed  the  com- 
ing of  the  man  who  was  to  bring  "on  earth  peace,  good 
will  toward  men."  Any  one  reading  the  gospel  story  of 
that  night  must  be  impressed  with  the  vastness  of  the 
vision  which  came  to  those  wise  men  who,  perceiving 
an  idea  far  larger  possibly  than  they  could  themselves 
interpret,  came  bearing  their  gifts  to  the  young  child. 
They  told  Herod  that  Bethlehem  was  not  the  least 
among  the  princes  of  Judah,  because  out  of  it  should 
come  "a  Governor,  that  shall  rule  my  people  Israel." 
The  Discoverer  of  Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Eddy, 
declares  that  "the  Wisemen  were  led  to  behold 
and  to  follow  this  daystar  of  divine  Science,  lighting 
the  way  to  eternal  harmony"  (Science  and  Health, 
Pref.,  p.  vii). 

These  wise  men  did  not  expect  to  see  the  prophe- 
cies of  the  Old  Testament  work  out  immediately,  in 
the  visible  manifestation  of  a  world  of  men,  good  and 
at  peace,  made  so  merely  by  the  arrival  of  the  Messiah. 
The  spiritual  enlightenment  that  brought  them  to 
Jerusalem  must  have  been  sufficient  to  reveal  the  re- 
ception which  the  Christ-idea,  or  spiritual  idea,  was 


4  "WHAT  WtfNT  YE  OUT.  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

destined  to  receive  before  it  could  be  generally  ac- 
cepted. They  knew  what  Isaiah  had  declared,  that 
the  man  who  announced  the  truth  would  come  unto 
his  own,  and  would  not  be  received  by  them;  in  other 
words,  Isaiah  foresaw  that  the  coming  of  the  spiritual 
idea,  or  truth,  would  not  be  welcomed  by  materiality. 

What  the  wise  men  encountered  in  Herod's  terri- 
fied opposition,  opposition  which  found  expression  in 
his  sending  forth  to  destroy  all  the  children  that  were 
in  Bethlehem,  "from  two  years  old  and  under,"  has 
proved  to  be  only  the  foreshadowing  of  the  battle 
which  was  inaugurated  by  Jesus  between  Truth  and 
suppositional  evil.  Herod  fought  the  advent  of  Jesus 
the  Christ  because  he  feared  that  his  throne  would  be 
endangered, — for  was  it  not  prophesied  that  the  com- 
ing Messiah  would  be  proclaimed  "King  of  the  Jews"  ? 
He  fought  Jesus  in  person,  and  was  led  into  the  com- 
mission of  acts  which  were  horrifying  even  to  the 
people  of  his  own  dark  time,  because  he  imagined  that 
by  putting  the  child  Jesus  to  death  he  would  be  able  to 
stay  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  not  perceiving  how 
the  prophets  had  foretold  that  when  one  came  who 
announced  the  truth,  the  truth  and  not  his  personality 
would  "make  darkness  light  before  them,  and  crooked 
things  straight." 

It  is  only  another  phase  of  the  same  ignorance  that 
induces  mankind  to  worship  Jesus  as  God,  while  fail- 
ing to  understand  the  living  truth  that  he  taught,  the 
knowledge  of  which  would  make  men  free.  Jesus 
himself  knew  too  much  to  allow  any  man  to  worship 
his  personality.  Instead,  he  said  to  Mary  after  his 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE  ?"      5 

resurrection,  "Touch  me  not;  for  I  am  not  yet 
ascended  to  my  Father."  He  was  demonstrating  the 
divine  Principle  of  Life,  and  proving  what  he  taught 
by  his  deeds.  He  spoke  of  "your  Father"  and  "my 
Father,"  and  showed  that  through  spiritual  under- 
standing only  was  he  nearer  to  God  than  other  men. 
The  works  that  I  do,  he  said,  ye  can  do  also,  meaning 
that  the  divine  Principle  which  he  taught  was  the 
healer  of  mortal  minds  and  bodies. 

Christian  Science  has  come,  as  "the  dayspring 
from  on  high,"  to  tell  humanity  the  meaning  of  Jesus' 
life  and  teaching.  The  Bible  has  always  declared  it, 
but  from  the  time  of  Jesus  until  the  discovery  of 
Christian  Science,  religions  have  based  their  creeds  on 
the  person  of  Jesus  instead  of  on  the  divine  Principle 
of  the  Christ  which  he  revealed.  On  page  119  of 
"The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  and  Miscel- 
lany," Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "Mary  of  old  wept  because 
she  stooped  down  and  looked  into  the  sepulcher — 
looked  for  the  person,  instead  of  the  Principle  that 
reveals  Christ."  The  world  has  wept,  and  yet  weeps, 
for  the  same  reason.  Thinking  that  the  Saviour  was 
in  matter,  that  he  came  as  an  infant  and  departed 
in  the  ascension,  the  world  has  missed  the  vital  truth, 
the  meaning  of  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."  Like  Thomas,  because  of  its 
materiality  the  world  has  denied  its  real  Saviour, — 
the  spiritual  understanding  which  the  great  Teacher 
labored  to  impart. 

Jesus  revealed  the  Christ-principle  which  heals 
and  saves.  He  taught  no  mysterious  doctrine  con- 


6  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

nected  with  his  own  personality,  nor  did  he  offer  a 
vicarious  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  When 
he  said,  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,"  he 
implied  that  it  was  the  Christ-spirit  of  which  he  spoke, 
— the  spirit  which  he  manifested.  From  that  saying 
the  various  creeds  have  wrested  a  false  meaning.  Be- 
lieving the  corporeal  Jesus  to  be  divine,  they  concluded 
that  the  human  race  could  not  do  as  he  did,  that  it 
must  pass  through  death  into  a  future  world  before 
it  could  make  good  his  divinely  appointed  commission ; 
that,  in  fact,  Jesus  was  not  giving  definite  commands 
and  practical  instruction  to  the  human  race  when  he 
said,  "These  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe;  In 
my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils;  they  shall  speak 
with  new  tongues;  they  shall  take  up  serpents;  and 
if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them; 
they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  re- 
cover,"— words  that  cannot  be  made  to  carry  any  but 
a  single  and  direct  meaning  to  an  unbiased  reader. 

The  revelation  of  Christian  Science  makes  clear 
this  very  point,  and  it  proves  that  unless  the  signs 
which  Jesus  demanded  are  forthcoming,  Christianity 
is  nothing  more  than  a  name.  In  unmistakable  fashion 
it  sets  forth  the  truth  as  found  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis, — that  man  is  spiritual  and  not  material,  that 
he  reflects  God,  because  he  is  a  son  of  God,  and  is 
nothing  less  than  God's  image  and  likeness,  to  whom 
God,  divine  Principle,  gave  dominion  over  all  the 
earth.  Jesus  understood  this,  and  he  rejected  utterly 
the  lie  that  the  sinning  and  sick  race  of  Adam  is  man. 
From  such  a  standpoint  of  truth  he  went  forward,  his 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE  ?"      7 

works  witnessing  to  all  that  he  taught.  To  him  the 
evidence  of  the  senses — the  dead  man,  the  withered 
hand,  the  leper — were  lies,  claims  made  upon  the 
material  senses  to  deny  the  truth  of  man's  real  being, 
and  he  rejected  them  all.  He  called  to  Lazarus, 
"Come  forth;"  to  the  man  with  a  withered  hand, 
"Stretch  forth  thine  hand;"  and  to  the  leper,  "Be 
thou  clean."  In  so  doing  he  attested  the  power  of 
divine  Principle,  the  Principle  of  the  real  man's  being. 
In  all  this  he  proclaimed  the  power  of  God,  and  he 
said,  "I  can  of  mine  own  self  do  nothing:  as  I  hear, 
I  judge."  That  is,  as  I  hear  from  my  Father  and 
your  Father,  the  Principle  of  my  being  and  of  yours. 

In  no  way  did  Christ  Jesus  claim  that  the  power 
to  do  the  works  was  his  own,  nor  hint  that  this  power 
would  be  absent  from  the  earth  after  the  ascension. 
He  knew  that  he  was  demonstrating  the  omnipotence 
and  omnipresence  of  God,  and  knew  that  spiritual 
understanding,  in  proportion  as  it  was  manifested, 
would  destroy  the  unreality — called  evil. 

At  the  present  time,  because  one  person  was  pure 
enough  to  discern  the  basis  of  Christ  Jesus'  teaching, 
mankind  has  been  given  the  revelation  of  Christian 
Science,  or  the  Science  of  the  Christ,  and,  behold,  the 
selfsame  "signs"  are  following  wherever  it  is  truly  un- 
derstood. In  "The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
and  Miscellany,"  on  the  page  already  quoted,  Mrs. 
Eddy  says,  "The  Mary  of  today  looks  up  for  Christ, 
away  from  the  supposedly  crucified  to  the  ascended 
Christ,  to  the  Truth  that  'healeth  all  thy  diseases' 
and  gives  dominion  over  all  the  earth." 


JESUS  OF  NAZARETH 

THE  words  of  Isaiah  the  prophet  spoken  to  Ahaz 
the  king,  "at  the  end  of  the  conduit  of  the  upper 
pool  in  the  highway  of  the  fuller's  field/'  had  sunk 
deeply  into  the  consciousness  of  the  people.  Told 
to  demand  a  sign  of  divine  protection,  Ahaz  had 
hesitated.  It  was  not  that  he  doubted  the  power 
of  the  prophet,  but  that  he  feared  his  requirements. 
A  change  of  policy  was  one  thing,  but  that  he  knew 
would  not  prove  radical  enough.  What  was  called 
for  was  a  change  of  life,  and  so  Ahaz  faltered.  His 
silence  was  filled  by  Isaiah  with  astonishing  complete- 
ness: "Hear  ye  now,  O  house  of  David;  Is  it  a  small 
thing  for  you  to  weary  men,  but  will  ye  weary  my 
God  also?  Therefore  the  Lord  himself  shall  give 
you  a  sign;  Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear 
a  son,  and  shall  call  his  name  Immanuel."  The  say- 
ing of  the  prophet  must  have  been  treasured  by  every 
Hebrew  maiden.  To  become  the  mother  of  the  Mes- 
siah must  necessarily  have  been  the  secret  hope  of 
all.  It  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  a  woman 
would  arise  pure  enough  to  realize  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  the  promise.  At  last  in  the  caravansary  at 
Bethlehem  that  promise  was  fulfilled.  In  the  words 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  on  page  29  of  Science  and  Health, 
"The  illumination  of  Mary's  spiritual  sense  put  to 

8 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  9 

silence  material  law  and  its  order  of  generation,  and 
brought  forth  her  child  by  the  revelation  of  Truth, 
demonstrating  God  as  the  Father  of  men." 

It  was  this  miracle  of  the  virgin-birth — for  a  mir- 
acle is  only  some  spiritual  manifestation  which  seems 
wonderful,  even  incredible,  to  the  human  senses — that 
constituted  the  difference  between  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
and  the  other  children  who  played  round  the  carpen- 
ter's shop  in  the  little  hillside  town  of  Nazareth.  The 
writers  of  numerous  uncanonical  gospels  have  ex- 
pended all  their  ingenuity  in  drawing  a  picture  of  the 
Messiah  in  these  days.  There  were  no  Dantes  among 
them.  They  drew  clumsily,  with  a  material  brush, 
on  the  vellum  of  their  own  superstition;  and  they  de- 
picted, not  the  Jesus  of  the  evangelists,  but  a  Jesus 
born  of  a  human  sense  of  supernatural  wonder-work- 
ing. The  genuineness  of  the  gospel  records  shows 
itself  in  nothing  so  completely  as  in  their  quiet  reti- 
cence. Directly  or  indirectly  the  writers  knew  Jesus 
as  he  had  walked  and  taught  during  his  ministry. 
They  were  far  too  clear,  too  scientific,  to  dwell  on 
that  which  was  hidden  from  them  in  a  glass  all  too 
darkly.  The  manuscript  makers  of  later  days,  foun- 
dering in  their  own  ignorance,  went  out  to  paint  the 
Christ,  and  succeeded  only  in  preserving  the  likeness 
of  a  magician. 

The  one  authentic  episode  of  Jesus'  childhood  is 
essentially  characteristic,  and  contains  no  hint  of  any 
such  wonder-story  as  those  in  the  uncanonical  gos- 
pels; it  is  the  account  of  the  journey  to  Jerusalem 
undertaken  in  order  to  keep  the  passover.  When 


10  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

the  difference  in  the  development  of  an  eastern  and 
western  boy  of  the  same  age  is  allowed  for,  there  is 
less  perhaps  that  is  strange  in  the  boy  sitting  amidst 
the  doctors,  "hearing  them,  and  asking  them  ques- 
tions." The  really  momentous  incident  is  his  reply 
to  his  mother  when  reproached  for  the  anxiety  she 
and  Joseph  had  been  caused:  "How  is  it  that  ye 
sought  me?  wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my 
Father's  business  ?"  Here,  in  his  very  first  recorded 
words,  is  struck  that  note  of  comprehension  of  man's 
spiritual  sonship  which  made  him  every  day  less  and 
less  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  more  and  more  Jesus  the 
Christ. 

It  was  Jesus'  insistence  on  this  fact  that  more  than 
anything  else  roused  the  fury  of  those  who  were  con- 
tending for  the  reality  of  matter.  The  reason  for 
this  is  not  far  to  seek.  Not  only  did  such  teaching 
do  away  with  any  necessity  for  a  special  priestly 
caste,  but  it  made  demands  on  that  caste,  naturally 
more  than  on  any  other,  for  a  gospel  of  works 
rather  than  of  words.  If  it  was  true  that  religion 
consisted  not  of  ceremonial  observances  or  accept- 
ance of  dogma,  but  of  the  effort  to  know  the  abso- 
lute truth  about  divine  Principle,  and  to  demon- 
strate your  knowledge  of  that  truth,  then  the  high 
priests,  the  scribes,  and  the  Pharisees,  more  than  any 
others,  were  called  upon  to  speak  with  authority  to  sin, 
disease,  and  death,  and  to  prove  their  nothingness. 
Worse,  perhaps,  even  than  this  was  the  revelation  that 
the  Messiah  was  the  spiritual  idea,  the  Christ,  Truth, 
and  not  a  warrior  monarch.  The  redemption  of  the 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  11 

race  was  to  be  achieved,  accordingly,  not  by  driving 
the  Romans  in  rout  to  their  ships,  and  installing  the 
high  priest  in  the  palace  of  Pilate,  but  by  that  sur- 
render of  self  which  was  to  substitute  the  Mind  of 
Christ  for  the  carnal  mind,  in  a  way  which  was  to 
make  the  crown  of  thorns  more  glorious  than  the  fillet 
of  the  Caesars,  and  the  seamless  robe  more  royal  than 
the  imperial  purple. 

Step  by  step,  by  a  deliberate  process  of  scientific 
deduction,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  proved  for  himself  and 
others  the  truth  of  the  gospel  he  had  discovered 
through  his  own  innate  purity.  This,  as  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  pointed  out  on  page  30  of  Science  and  Health, 
was  largely  owing  to  his  virgin  birth.  She  says, 
"Had  his  origin  and  birth  been  wholly  apart  from 
mortal  usage,  Jesus  would  not  have  been  appreciable 
to  mortal  mind  as  'the  way/  "  As  it  was,  the  mortal 
struggled  with  the  divine  in  the  temptations,  in  Geth- 
semane,  and  on  Calvary.  On  all  these  occasions  he 
was  proving  the  nothingness  of  matter  and  the 
omnipotence  of  a  true  understanding  of  Principle,  and 
what  he  learned  himself  he  imparted  to  the  world, 
with  that  glorious  reliance  on  the  invincibility  of 
Truth  which  enabled  him  to  say,  "Heaven  and  earth 
shall  pass  away:  but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away." 

What  then  was  it  that  enabled  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
to  become  Jesus  the  Christ?  It  was  the  steadfast 
adherence  of  the  man  to  the  first  recorded  saying  of 
the  boy.  The  last  words  on  the  cross,  "It  is  finished," 
were  the  necessary  and  inevitable  corollary  to  the  first 
recorded  words  in  the  temple,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I 


12  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

must  be  about  my  Father's  business?"  That  Father 
was  divine  Principle,  and  the  brief  earthly  career  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  shows  the  tremendous  power  which 
comes  to  the  man  who  in  thought  and  word  and  deed 
is  obedient,  day  by  day  and  hour  by  hour,  to  divine 
law. 

Has  anybody  ever  attempted  to  realize  what  Jesus' 
obedience  to  divine  law  meant  to  the  human  senses? 
It  meant  the  subjugation  of  the  human  to  the  divine 
at  every  point.  It  meant  the  realization  of  the  true 
brotherhood  of  man  which  enabled  him  to  say  that  it 
was  not  flesh  and  blood  that  constituted  brotherhood, 
but  a  common  understanding  of  divine  Principle. 
When  man  realizes  that  this  is  the  case,  then  healing, 
as  Jesus  taught  healing,  will  become  a  possibility,  and 
war,  as  nations  preach  war,  will  be  found  an  impossi- 
bility. It  meant  that  absolute  divorcement  from  ma- 
terial desires  which  reduced  all  material  things  to 
their  true  perspective  in  his  thought,  so  that  though 
his  knowledge  of  the  unreality  of  matter  would  have 
made  it  apparently  possible  for  him  to  have  gratified 
every  sensuous  whim,  his  appreciation  of  their  noth- 
ingness made  such  gratification  a  total  impossibility 
to  him.  This  made  him  the  richest  as  it  made  him  the 
simplest  of  mankind.  He  did  not  acquire  more  mate- 
rial possessions  through  his  demonstration  of  the  un- 
reality of  matter,  but  less  and  less.  He  did  not  desire 
more  of  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  even  in  their  apparently 
most  harmless  form,  but  reduced  these  so  completely 
in  his  own  consciousness  to  their  true  value,  that  he 
was  able  to  look  with  the  utmost  pity  on  the  pathetic 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  13 

effort  of  mankind  to  assure  itself  of  the  reality  of 
matter  by  endowing  itself  with  matter. 

It  was  thus  Jesus  became,  in  the  words  of  the  book 
of  Isaiah,  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  a  man  so  obe- 
dient to  divine  Principle  that  he  reflected  nothing  but 
divine  Principle.  It  was  the  achievement  of  this, 
and  nothing  else,  that  made  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Jesus 
the  Christ. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST 

IT  was  in  the  days  of  the  great  feast,  during  which, 
when  all  the  surrounding  lights  had  been  quenched, 
the  golden  candlestick  in  the  court  of  the  women 
was  illuminated  so  as  to  flame  out  in  the  darkness  on 
Mount  Moriah,  that  Jesus  startled  the  Pharisees  by 
crying  aloud  to  the  people,  "I  am  the  light  of  the 
world."  The  Pharisees,  always  suspicious  of  anything 
which  might  tend  to  depreciate  the  dignity  of  the 
hierarchy,  at  once  concluded  he  was  referring  to  him- 
self. A  few  moments  later  he  made  it  perfectly  clear 
that  he  was  referring  to  the  Christ,  though  the  hard- 
ened materialism  of  the  Pharisees  failed  to  understand 
him.  They  had  bitterly  taunted  him  with  having  said 
that  Abraham  had  rejoiced  to  see  his  day,  and  had 
seen  it,  and  was  glad.  "Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years 
old,  and  hast  thou  seen  Abraham?"  they  jeered.  Then 
it  was  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  made  that  unmistakable 
statement  of  the  spirituality  of  the  Christ, — "Before 
Abraham  was,  I  am." 

In  those  words  Jesus  not  only  showed  how  it  was 
that  he  was  entitled  to  the  name  of  Christ,  but  even 
how  it  was  that  the  writer  of  the  Messianic  prophecies 
should  have  been  able  centuries  earlier  to  paint,  in  the 
prophecies  of  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  the  picture  of 
the  man  who  would  manifest  the  Christ.  The  writer 
14 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  15 

of  these  prophecies  had  seen  the  turmoil  which  would 
be  manifested  in  the  world  when  there  arose  a  man  of 
such  purity  of  thought  that  those  about  him  would  be 
maddened  by  his  adamantine  statements  of  the  truth. 
Such  a  man  would  faithfully  set  forth  the  law,  so  that 
his  commands  would  carry,  not  through  the  tiny  prov- 
ince of  Judaea  alone,  but  throughout  the  world.  Such  a 
man  would  certainly  not  be  broken  in  spirit,  but  would 
meet  the  animality  of  the  world  without  fear.  Such  a 
man  would  proclaim  a  gospel  as  much  for  the  Gentile 
world  as  for  the  Hebrew.  Such  a  man  would  not  be 
rebellious  but  obedient  to  divine  law;  and  his  very 
obedience  to  that  law  would  make  him,  in  his  effort 
to  prove  the  nothingness  of  materiality,  apparently 
subject  to  the  forces  of  materiality.  Such  a  man, 
amidst  the  passions  and  brutalities  of  the  flesh,  would 
undoubtedly  seem  "smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted," 
because  the  flesh  would  be  absolutely  unable  to  appre- 
ciate the  true  meaning  of  the  crown  of  thorns  and  the 
scepter  of  a  reed,  and  so  incapable  of  appreciating  in 
the  crucified  Saviour  the  victory  of  the  risen  Christ. 

What,  of  course,  Jesus  meant  was  that  the  Christ 
was  the  spiritual  idea,  coeval  with  divine  Principle, 
and  that  every  one  from  the  time  of  Abraham,  as  the 
Jews  counted  time,  who  had  ever  understood  anything 
of  Principle,  had  in  that  measure  seen  the  Christ. 
The  whole  story  of  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Rev- 
elation is  the  story  of  the  gradual  dawning  of  the 
Christ,  Truth,  on  human  perception,  so  that  "the 
deep"  over  which  the  darkness  brooded,  and  which  to 
the  writer  of  Genesis  stood  as  a  synonym  for  all  evil, 


16  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

was,  according  to  the  last  verses  of  Revelation,  to 
disappear  in  the  light  of  the  truth  generated  through 
an  understanding  of  the  Christ.  Abraham  had  seen 
the  Christ  when  Truth  led  him  to  abandon  polytheism 
and  go  out  alone  to  establish  the  monotheism  of 
Israel.  Jacob  had  seen  the  Christ  that  night  when, 
sleeping  under  the  stars  by  the  brook  Jabbok,  he 
struggled  with  his  belief  of  evil  until  he  overthrew  it. 
Moses  had  seen  the  Christ  when  he  stretched  forth  his 
hand  over  the  Red  sea  and  the  Israelites  passed  over 
on  dry  ground.  Elisha  had  seen  the  Christ  when  "the 
chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof,"  appeared 
to  him.  Isaiah  had  seen  the  Christ  when  he  pro- 
claimed the  fact  that  sacrifice  was  the  abandonment 
of  sin,  and  not  the  horrible  slaughter  of  animals. 
Finally,  John  the  Baptist  had  seen  the  Christ  when 
he  preached  the  gospel  of  purity  and  restraint  to  men. 
All  these  men  had  some  vision,  however  slight,  of  the 
absolute  scientific  Truth  which  had  existed  before 
Abraham,  and  the  availability  of  which  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  had  demonstrated  ever  since  that  day  when 
as  a  boy  in  the  temple  he  declared  that  he  must  be 
about  his  Father's  business. 

The  difference  between  Jesus  the  Christ  and  the 
earlier  Hebrew  prophets  was  one  of  clearness  of 
vision.  "Abraham,  Jacob,  Moses,  and  the  prophets," 
Mrs.  Eddy  writes  on  page  333  of  Science  and  Health, 
"caught  glorious  glimpses  of  the'  Messiah,  or  Christ, 
which  baptized  these  seers  in  the  divine  nature,  the 
essence  of  Love."  They,  like  Paul,  had  seen  in  a 
glass,  darkly:  Jesus  alone  had  seen  face  to  face,  and 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  17 

it  was  this  which  made  him  essentially  Jesus  the 
Christ.  From  the  first  day  that  he  set  about  his 
Father's  business  until  the  human  Jesus  utterly  dis- 
appeared and  only  the  Christ  was  left,  he  had  demon- 
strated hour  by  hour  what  this  meant.  In  the  tempta- 
tions in  the  wilderness  he  had  proved  the  nothingness 
of  matter,  the  futility  of  pride,  and  the  impotence  of 
human  power;  and  he  had  proved  all  this  through  the 
steadiness  of  his  own  vision  of  the  Christ,  because  he 
had  realized  the  scientific  truth  of  God  as  Principle, 
and  of  man  as  the  image  and  likeness  of  Principle, 
and  so  as  the  embodiment  of  divine  law. 

It  was  not  necessary  that  divine  Mind  should  eat 
matter  to  maintain  life;  it  was  not  necessary  that 
divine  Mind  should  stoop  to  leaping  from  the  pinnacle 
of  the  temple  to  attract  human  attention;  it  was  not 
necessary  that  divine  Mind  should  adopt  the  methods 
of  Caesar  Augustus,  or  even  of  Herod  at  Caesarea,  to 
demonstrate  its  omnipotence.  So  onward  day  by  day 
Jesus  fought  down  the  mesmerism  of  materiality,  and 
there  shone  brighter  and  brighter  in  his  words  and 
deeds  the  image  of  the  Christ  which  made  him,  far 
more  than  the  oil  in  the  great  candlestick,  the  light 
not  merely  to  Mount  Moriah  but  to  the  world.  Every 
time  he  performed  a  miracle  he  proved,  not  only  to 
himself  but  to  the  human  consciousness,  the  power- 
lessness  of  material  considerations,  the  very  nothing- 
ness of  material  phenomena,  and  the  abiding  power 
and  reality  of  Truth.  Whether  he  was  healing  the 
sick  or  raising  the  dead,  walking  on  the  water  or  feed- 
ing the  multitude,  finding  the  tribute  money  or  turn- 


18  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

ing  water  into  wine,  he  was  engaged  in  the  process  of 
proving  that  material  elements  have  no  being,  and 
physical  laws  no  dominion,  and  that  consequently 
the  only  abiding  knowledge  is  the  knowledge  of  the 
Christ,  Truth. 

Jesus  himself  summed  all  this  up  very  clearly  in 
the  saying,  "The  flesh  profiteth  nothing:  the  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 
life."  He  could  scarcely  have  said  more  clearly, 
Matter  is  nothing,  and  the  Christ,  Truth,  is  everything. 
Paul  understood  clearly  what  Jesus  meant  when  he 
spoke  of  a  scientific  understanding  of  God,  that  is 
to  say,  that  understanding  of  God  which  is  contained 
in  the  Mind  of  Christ.  Humanity  in  its  blind  way 
understood  this  very  clearly  when  it  attempted  to 
safeguard  its  materiality  by  making  Jesus  God,  and 
embodying  Jesus  the  Christ  as  the  second  person  of 
the  Trinity.  Jesus  never  gave  any  justification  for 
such  a  claim.  He  pointed  out  that  God  was  the 
Father  of  all  men,  and  that  human  beings  found  their 
divine  sonship  in  proportion  as  the  Mind  of  Christ 
obliterated  the  carnal  mind.  It  was  for  this  reason 
that  Paul  impressed  upon  the  Philippians  the  necessity 
of  letting  this  Mind  be  in  them  "which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus."  In  the  exact  proportion  in  which  men 
permit  the  Mind  expressed  by  Christ  Jesus  to  be  Mind 
to  them,  do  they  become  perfect,  even  as  their  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect. 

The  Christ,  then,  comprehends  the  truth  about 
God  and  man.  It  is  the  reflection  of  Principle  on 
earth  which  enabled  Jesus  to  tell  his  disciples  when 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE  ?"  19 

they  prayed  to  let  it  be  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
should  come  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  The  man 
Jesus  was  the  son  of  Mary.  The  spiritual  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God.  It  was  the  reflection  of  Principle  in 
the  son  of  Mary  which  made  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Jesus 
the  Christ,  and  little  by  little,  as  his  demonstration 
of  divine  Principle  became  stronger  and  more  abso- 
lutely scientific,  the  man  Jesus  gave  place  to  Jesus 
the  Christ.  It  was  not,  however,  until  the  eve  of  the 
crucifixion  that  the  human  Jesus  was  able  to  say,  "The 
prince  of  this  world  cometh,  and  hath  nothing  in  me." 
In  other  words,  the  carnal  mind  has  given  place 
entirely  to  the  Christ.  Then  it  was  that  he  was 
enabled  to  make  his  final  demonstration  of  the  noth- 
ingness of  death  upon  the  cross,  with  the  result  that 
the  glorified  Saviour,  who  rose  from  the  tomb,  was  not 
again  visible  to  any  but  those  to  whom  some  under- 
standing of  the  Christ  made  him  visible.  Then  finally 
there  came  that  day  in  the  mountain  in  Galilee  when 
the  man  Jesus  finally  vanished  from  the  sight  of  men 
too  material  to  be  able  to  view  the  Christ,  though  the 
Christ  remains  always  with  them,  "even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world."  "Jesus,"  Mrs.  Eddy  writes,  on  page 
332  of  Science  and  Health,  "demonstrated  Christ;  he 
proved  that  Christ  is  the  divine  idea  of  God — the  Holy 
Ghost,  or  Comforter,  revealing  the  divine  Principle, 
Love,  and  leading  into  all  truth." 


JESUS    AND    THE    CHRIST 

IN  method  and  in  purpose  Christian  Science  is 
essentially  constructive.  It  tears  down  only  to 
build  anew.  It  challenges  a  man's  belief  only  that 
it  may  offer  him  a  better  understanding.  The  aim  of 
its  denials  is  to  make  clear  its  affirmations.  Thus  it 
denies  that  Jesus  is  the  Deity  in  order  to  illuminate 
"the  way"  which  he  showed,  and  proclaim  the  Messiah, 
or  Christ.  No  one  can  afford  to  be  either  misinformed 
or  uninformed  with  respect  to  what  Christian  Science 
teaches  on  this  subject,  for  it  is  vital  in  relation  to  all 
that  religion  offers  to  mankind. 

Christian  Science  holds  that  Jesus  was  one  who 
acted  within  the  range  of  what  is  possible  for  men, — 
one  who  exemplified  universal  possibilities.  It  teaches 
that  he  was  "the  highest  human  corporeal  concept  of 
the  divine  idea"  (Science  and  Health,  p.  589),  and 
was  rightly  entitled  the  Messiah,  or  Christ,  though 
either  of  these  terms,  as  applied  to  him,  is  less  a  per- 
sonal name  than  the  designation  of  his  office.  It 
affirms  that  the  office  of  the  Christ  is  to  liberate  and 
deliver,  to  heal  and  to  save,  and  that  our  privilege 
and  our  need,  as  well  as  our  duty,  is  not  to  worship 
Jesus  as  God,  but  to  appreciate  his  humanity  and  to 
emulate  his  example,  remembering,  as  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  said,  that  he  "was  the  offspring  of  Mary's  self- 
20 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  21 

conscious  communion  with  God.  Hence  he  could  give 
a  more  spiritual  idea  of  life  than  other  men,  and 
could  demonstrate  the  Science  of  Love — his  Father  or 
divine  Principle"  (Science  and  Health,  p.  29).  This 
teaching  renders  unto  Jesus  exactly  what  he  desired, 
namely,  not  to  be  deified,  but  to  be  glorified. 

The  basis  of  this  teaching  is  the  entire  Bible,  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures,  but  particularly  the 
utterances  of  Christ  Jesus  himself.  For  Christians  at 
least,  the  question  whether  he  is  God  ought  to  be  set- 
tled by  what  he  said.  He  must  have  known  whether 
he  was  man  or  God,  and  this  subject  was  within  the 
scope  of  the  topics  on  which  he  spoke.  If,  therefore, 
he  were  God,  he  would  have  said  so  plainly  and  often. 
His  mere  silence  on  such  a  vital  point  would  be  suffi- 
cient to  refute  the  theory  that  Jesus  is  the  Deity.  But 
he  was  not  silent;  the  gospel  record  of  his  teaching 
authorizes,  both  negatively  and  positively,  the  position 
taken  by  Christian  Science. 

On  reexamining  the  gospels  to  discern  anew  what 
the  Master  taught  on  this  subject,  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  he  did  not  teach  that  God  is  three  persons,  but 
plainly  taught  that  He  is  one.  When  a  scribe  asked 
him,  "Which  is  the  first  commandment  of  all?"  the 
answer  which  Jesus  gave  included  the  words,  "Hear, 
O  Israel;  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord."  The 
scribe's  reply,  which  Jesus  expressly  approved,  in- 
cluded the  words,  "There  is  one  God;  and  there  is 
none  other  but  he."  The  truth  thus  affirmed  and  re- 
affirmed was  the  cardinal  point,  or  central  fact,  in  the 
religion  of  the  Jews.  They  had  always  steadfastly 


22  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

held  to  the  oneness  of  God.  Surely  it  cannot  be  said 
that  Jesus  introduced  an  inconsistent  belief. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  Jesus  never  said  that 
he  was  God.  On  the  contrary,  he  plainly  said  of  him- 
self that  he  was  "a  man  that  hath  told  you  the  truth." 
Indeed,  he  referred  to  himself  with  other  men  as  wor- 
shiping God, — "We  know  what  we  worship."  Surely 
he  did  not  mean  that  he  worshiped  himself.  We  must 
consider  also  that  the  Master  said,  with  reference  to 
his  disciples,  "They  are  not  of  the  world,  even  as  I  am 
not  of  the  world."  Such  sayings  as  these  precluded 
the  theory  of  his  deification. 

The  gospels  also  show  that  Jesus,  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  virtually  denied  that  he  was  God.  For  in- 
stance he  said,  "Why  callest  thou  me  good?  there  is 
none  good  but  one,  that  is,  God."  This  saying  ought 
to  be  conclusive  of  this  whole  question,  for  it  is 
squarely  contrary  to  the  theory  that  Jesus  was  God, 
and  it  is  equally  contradictory  of  the  belief  that  God 
is  three.  By  this  saying  Jesus  did  not  mean  that 
he  was  bad.  He  was,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  has  said  on  page 
54  of  Science  and  Health,  a  "Godlike  and  glorified 
man,"  but  his  words  show  that  he  recognized  his  entire 
dependence  on  the  Father.  His  was  a  reflected  glory; 
his  was  a  derived  goodness.  He  reflected  the  goodness 
of  God  and  the  power  of  God,  and  this  is  the  true 
function  of  man. 

It  is  also  recorded  in  the  gospels  that  Jesus  was 
once  required  to  affirm  or  deny  that  he  claimed  to  be 
God.  That  which  in  the  course  of  three  or  four  cen- 
turies came  to  be  held  as  orthodox  belief  was  put  to 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  23 

him  as  an  accusation.  This  occurred  at  the  feast  of 
the  dedication  in  Jerusalem,  as  publicly  as  could  be. 
Certain  of  the  Jews  had  taken  up  stones  to  stone 
him,  and  Jesus  asked  them  why  they  did  so.  They 
answered,  "For  blasphemy;  and  because  that  thou, 
being  a  man,  makest  thyself  God."  In  reply,  he  did 
not  deny  that  he  was  a  man,  but  he  corrected  them 
on  the  other  point.  His  words  were,  "I  said,  I  am 
the  Son  of  God."  Surely  in  these  circumstances,  if  he 
were  God,  he  would  have  said  so.  If  the  Deity  were 
three  persons,  of  whom  he  was  one,  he  would  not  have 
spoken  as  he  did.  It  is  to  be  observed  also,  that  his 
reply  was  understood  by  his  accusers  to  be  a  denial  of 
the  charge  that  he  claimed  to  be  God.  Although  they 
were  seeking  evidence  of  their  accusation,  they  did 
not  pretend  that  he  had  admitted  it. 

In  order  to  understand  the  word  "Son"  as  used  by 
Jesus,  we  must  consider  his  use  of  the  word  "Father," 
for  each  of  these  words  is  the  counterpart  and  com- 
plement of  the  other.  The  gospels  show  that  he  spoke 
not  only  of  "my  Father,"  but  of  "the  Father,"  "your 
Father,"  and  "our  Father,"  and  that  he  used  these 
titles  interchangeably.  This  fact,  of  itself,  proves 
that  he  did  not  regard  himself  as  God;  but  there  is 
further  proof  from  his  own  lips.  Several  of  his  utter- 
ances plainly  imply  that  the  same  relation  to  God  in 
which  he  stood  is  the  divine  birthright  of  every  man. 
Thus  he  spoke  of  other  men  as  sons  or  children  of 
God,  and  he  expressed  his  whole  aim  and  object  in  the 
words,  "that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also." 

That  the  teachings  of  Christian  Science  are  cor- 


24  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

rect,  is  again  clearly  shown  by  what  Jesus  said  in 
prayer  for  other  men:  "The  glory  which  thou  gavest 
me  I  have  given  them;  that  they  may  be  one,  even 
as  we  are  one."  The  unity  with  God  which  he  claimed 
was  therefore  a  relation  with  the  divine  Spirit  or 
Mind  which  belongs  potentially  to  every  man.  It 
was  evidently  the  real  man's  mental  and  spiritual 
unity  with  his  divine  Principle,  which  Jesus  empha- 
sized in  order  that  God-given  qualities  might  be  recog- 
nized and  expressed  by  us  as  they  were  by  him. 

It  may  be  remembered  at  this  point  that  Jesus 
also  said,  "I  and  my  Father  are  one/'  and  that  this 
saying  has  been  construed  to  mean,  "The  Father  and  I 
are  identical,"  "He  and  I  are  the  same,"  or  "I  am 
God."  But  no  such  meaning  belongs  to  his  words, 
nor  would  any  such  interpretation  be  consistent  with 
his  other  sayings.  "My  Father  is  greater  than  I;" 
"I  can  of  mine  own  self  do  nothing;"  "I  live  by  the 
Father," — these  are  some  of  the  Master's  utterances 
which  forbid  such  a  strained  construction  of  his 
words.  The  unity  to  which  he  referred  is  thus  de- 
fined by  Mrs.  Eddy:  "As  a  drop  of  water  is  one  with 
the  ocean,  a  ray  of  light  one  with  the  sun,  even  so 
God  and  man,  Father  and  son,  are  one  in  being.  The 
Scripture  reads:  'For  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being'  "  (Science  and  Health,  p.  361). 

The  belief,  therefore,  that  Jesus  was  God,  and 
the  theory  that  he  was  able  to  do  as  he  did  because  of 
this  fact,  tends  to  perpetuate  a  false  concept  not  only 
of  man,  but  of  God.  This  mistaken  view  limits  the 
knowledge  of  divine  power  and  causation;  it  turns 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  25 

thought  away  from  the  source  and  Principle  of  life 
eternal. 

To  understand  the  Life  which  Jesus  manifested, 
we  must  get  to  know  something  of  this  infinite  Life 
which  is  not  in  man  but  is  reflected  by  man.  To 
understand  the  Love  which  Jesus  showed  forth,  we 
must  see  that  God  is  Love,  and  that  divine  Love  is 
made  manifest  and  effective  through  man.  To  ap- 
preciate the  intelligence  which  Jesus  possessed,  we 
must  perceive  that  divine  Mind  is  God,  and  that  He 
is  the  Mind  of  man.  To  comprehend  the  so-called 
miracles  which  Jesus  wrought,  one  must  know  the 
divine  law  and  power  which  made  them  possible, 
normal,  and  natural.  To  understand  what  he  was 
and  did,  one  must  know  the  Principle  by  which  he 
lived  and  acted.  Every  evidence  of  real  life  is  a 
witness  to  the  source,  substance,  and  Principle  of 
true  being,  and  this  divine  Principle  is  God. 

The  "incarnation,"  then,  is  simply  this:  that 
God  was  made  manifest  to  human  thought  through 
Christ  Jesus.  He  himself  said,  "If  ye  had  known 
me,  ye  should  have  known  my  Father  also."  Christian 
Science  therefore  explains  that  the  difference  between 
Jesus  and  other  men  is  not  that  he  was  above  the  true 
standard  of  manhood,  but  that  our  sense  of  man  is 
below  par.  To  borrow  a  phrase  used  by  Isaiah,  he 
lifted  up  "a  standard  for  the  people,"  a  standard 
which  was  recognized  by  St.  John  when  he  wrote, 
"Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God." 

The  final  disappearance  of  Jesus  has  been  com- 
monly called  his  ascension.  Truly  regarded,  that  was 


26  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

the  culmination  of  it.  His  ascension  was  a  progres- 
sive demonstration  of  the  power  of  Truth  over  error. 
With  the  knowledge  of  Truth  he  overcame,  one  after 
another,  the  errors  which  seem  to  make  man  mortal, 
until  he  proved  man's  immortality  completely.  Un- 
derstanding the  reality  and  the  infinity  of  Spirit,  he 
put  on0  the  belief  of  life  in  matter  until  every  material 
element  vanished  and  to  human  sight  he  became  in- 
visible. In  this  manner  he  ascended  progressively, 
disproving  the  sense  of  life  which  is  partly  material, 
or  human,  and  demonstrating  the  Life  which  is  purely 
spiritual,  or  divine. 

Moreover,  he  did  not  do  this  in  a  way  that  was 
personal  to  himself.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the 
"new  and  living  way,"  "the  way  of  truth,"  which  he 
dedicated  for  us.  He  invited  all  men  to  learn  of  him, 
and  he  declared  that  we  can  do  as  he  did.  Therefore 
the  way  which  he  showed  is  universal,  practicable, 
and  scientific.  How  long  it  may  take  for  any  partic- 
ular person  to  scale  the  whole  ascent,  and  whether  he 
will  do  so  without  the  change  called  death  or  in  spite 
of  it,  these  are  points  of  but  little  importance  as 
compared  with  a  definite  grasp  of  the  possibility, 
including  the  problem  to  be  solved  and  the  way  of 
its  solution. 

It  is  therefore  essential  to  all  that  Jesus  sought 
to  accomplish  that  we,  as  Peter  said,  "follow  his 
steps;"  that  we  overcome  evil  and  rise  above  discord- 
ant conditions,  as  he  did;  that  is,  by  virtue  of  the 
same  law  and  power.  The  essence  of  Jesus'  work  was 
che  illustration  or  exemplification  of  what  is  practi- 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  27 

cable  for  us;  but  his  life  would  furnish  no  example 
unless  he  were,  as  one  New  Testament  writer  has  said, 
"in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are/'  The  purpose 
of  Jesus'  entire  endeavor  was  to  serve  his  fellow  men, 
and  there  ought  to  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  nature  and 
method  of  his  service.  We  have  his  own  authority 
for  saying  that  it  was  teaching;  it  was  enlightening 
the  world;  it  was  bearing  witness  unto  the  truth.  His 
ministry  was  a  series  of  concrete  lessons  by  which  he 
taught  and  objectified  the  truth,  or  reality,  of  man's 
being. 

The  greater  part  of  what  Jesus  did  has  been  put 
aside  as  supernatural,  while  we  should  have  perceived, 
as  John  did,  that  he  was  "the  faithful  witness"  who 
"hath  given  us  an  understanding."  All  of  what  Jesus 
did  would  be  perfectly  natural  to  one  who  fully  un- 
derstood the  truth  of  being.  His  acts  of  power  were 
done  in  accordance  with  the  true  order  of  the  uni- 
verse. They  annulled  the  seeming  law  of  evil  with 
the  absolute  law  of  good.  They  were  object-lessons 
in  the  demonstration  of  real  law.  His  unparalleled 
self-sacrifice  (the  crucifixion  and  resurrection,  involv- 
ing the  overcoming  of  death)  was  incident  and  neces- 
sary to  his  demonstration  of  Truth.  It  was  the  su- 
preme proof  of  divine  Love  and  Life.  His  healing 
works,  so  far  from  being  supernatural,  were  supremely 
natural,  for  they  evinced  the  true  nature  of  man's 
being.  They  separated  that  which,  in  the  human 
make-up,  is  illusive,  destructible,  and  unreal,  from 
what  is  substantial,  enduring,  and  real.  In  short, 
these  mighty  works  were  part  of  the  means  by  which 


28  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

the  Master  taught;  they  were  part  of  the  method  by 
which  he  bore  witness  unto  the  truth. 

Such  a  service  would  have  been  vain  and  use- 
less,— indeed,  it  would  have  been  impossible, — if  the 
truth  which  he  proved  were  not  as  true  for  us  as  it 
was  and  is  for  him.  Happily  for  us,  this  truth  was 
the  reality  of  Life  brought  to  light.  Hence  it  was 
that  Jesus  said,  "Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also." 
For  these  reasons  a  correct  view  of  Jesus  is  of  the 
utmost  importance.  We  need  to  know  what  he  was 
in  order  to  understand  "the  way"  which  he  opened  for 
us — that  way  which  was  referred  to  by  two  of  the 
New  Testament  writers  as  the  "new  and  living  way," 
"the  way  of  truth." 

In  order  to  gain  the  true  and  abundant  Life  which 
Jesus  manifested  for  us,  we  must,  as  Paul  said,  "put 
off  the  old  man"  and  "put  on  the  new  man."  To  be 
saved  from  evil,  we  must  lift  thought  above  sinful 
and  mortal  personality  in  matter  to  man's  real  indi- 
viduality in  Spirit  or  Mind,  where  evil  does  not  exist. 
In  other  words,  to  be  redeemed  from  mortality  is  to 
perceive  and  achieve  one's  true  manhood,  with  its  un- 
derstanding and  goodness  and  power,  with  its  free- 
dom, wholeness,  and  immortality.  To  do  this,  a  true 
concept  of  Jesus  is  absolutely  essential;  and  it  is  a 
main  factor,  for  with  it  we  can  then  begin  to  realize 
the  truth  of  Paul's  saying,  "Unto  every  one  of  us  is 
given  grace  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of 
Christ." 

How,  then,  did  the  belief  that  Jesus  is  God  origi- 
nate? This  question  is  not  answered  in  the  Bible,  but 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  29 

the  answer  is  compassed  by  the  force  of  indubitable 
facts.  Jesus  neither  taught  that  he  was  God  nor  au- 
thorized that  belief.  It  is  not  affirmed  by  the  authors 
of  the  gospels,  who  nowhere  said  that  Jesus  is  the 
Deity.  New  Testament  writers  who  are  commonly 
quoted  as  supporting  the  doctrine  in  question,  wrote 
just  as  explicitly,  or  more  explicitly,  to  the  contrary. 
Take,  for  example,  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews;  it 
contains  the  statement  that  Jesus  and  other  men  are 
"sons,"  "brethren/'  and  "all  of  one." 

How  Jesus  was  generally  regarded  by  the  Chris- 
tians of  his  day,  can  be  inferred  from  an  incident 
related  in  the  book  of  Acts.  After  he  had  passed  be- 
yond the  range  of  human  sight,  and  there  had  been 
chosen  a  successor  to  Judas  Iscariot,  Peter,  "standing 
up  with  the  eleven,"  and  addressing  the  whole  com- 
pany of  believers  at  Jerusalem,  spoke  to  them  of 
"Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God,"  and 
throughout  the  address  Jesus  is  referred  to  as  distinct 
from  God.  When  all  of  these  facts  are  fairly  con- 
sidered, but  little  is  left  as  basis  for  the  theory  in 
question  besides  the  human  tendency  to  limit  man  by 
materialistic  beliefs,  and  the  primitive  habit  of  attrib- 
uting to  extraordinary  facts  a  supernatural  character. 

It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  Christian 
Science  neither  deifies  Jesus  nor  reduces  him  to  the 
common  level  of  humanity.  It  accepts  the  Scriptural 
account  of  the  conception  which  led  to  his  birth,  and 
attaches  much  importance  to  his  origin  and  to  his 
knowledge  of  it.  Explicit  references  to  this  subject 
will  be  found  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings;  for  example, 


30  "WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?" 

on  pages  29,  315,  332,  and  539  of  Science  and  Health. 
The  following  excerpt  is  from  the  page  last  men- 
tioned: "The  divine  origin  of  Jesus  gave  him  more 
than  human  power  to  expound  the  facts  of  creation, 
and  demonstrate  the  one  Mind  which  makes  and  gov- 
erns man  and  the  universe.'*  Without  the  extraor- 
dinary proof  which  he  had  of  God's  fatherhood,  Jesus 
might  not  have  been  able  to  say  in  his  youth,  "Wist  ye 
not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business?"  nor 
able  in  his  later  years  to  perceive  and  teach  the  further 
fact  of  spiritual  being,  "Call  no  man  your  father  upon 
the  earth:  for  one  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven." 

Another  question  can  be  explicitly  answered: 
Who  or  what  is  the  Christ?  A  few  sentences  from  an 
encyclopedia  (Popular  and  Critical  Bible  Encyclo- 
pedia, vol.  2,  pp.  942,  943)  will  advance  this  inquiry. 
"Jesus  was  our  Lord's  proper  name,  just  as  Peter, 
James,  and  John  were  the  proper  names  of  three  of 
his  disciples.  .  .  .  Christ  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a 
proper  name,  but  an  official  title.  Jesus  Christ,  or 
rather,  as  it  generally  ought  to  be  rendered,  Jesus  the 
Christ,  is  a  mode  of  expression  of  the  same  kind  as 
John  the  Baptist,  or  Baptizer.  In  consequence  of  not 
adverting  to  this,  the  force,  and  even  the  meaning,  of 
many  passages  of  Scripture  are  misapprehended." 

In  the  Bible  the  term  "Christ,"  or  "the  Christ," 
is  used  as  a  synonym  for  the  Messiah,  whose  advent 
was  the  subject  of  Jewish  prophecy  and  expectation. 
It  is  used  as  a  title  given  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  be- 
cause he  fulfilled  the  Messianic  prophecies.  It  is 
also  used  to  name  the  office  of  the  divine  Saviour;  to 


"WHAT  WENT  YE  OUT  FOR  TO  SEE?"  31 

designate  that  which  exercises  or  manifests  the  saving 
power  of  God.  In  her  works  on  Christian  Science, 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  followed  this  Biblical  usage,  thus  re- 
storing the  name  "Christ"  to  its  full  meaning.  Con- 
sistently with  both  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, she  has  also  furnished  a  definitive  statement  of 
the  Christ  on  which  both  Jews  and  Christians  may 
unite;  namely,  "The  divine  manifestation  of  God, 
which  comes  to  the  flesh  to  destroy  incarnate  error" 
(Science  and  Health,  p.  583). 

This  is  a  definition  for  all  peoples  and  for  every 
era.  Thus  it  was  that  Paul  spoke  of  the  Christ  as 
having  delivered  the  Hebrews  at  the  time  of  the  ex- 
odus from  Egypt.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Christ  actually 
can  be  with  every  one  "alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world," — even  unto  the  end  of  error.  And  thus 
it  is  that  the  "Christ  in  you"  is  "the  hope  of  glory." 


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